In the past, shady practices were pretty common in getting garnishee orders.
Some microlenders and debt collectors would go “forum shopping,” using distant magistrates’ courts to get orders where people simply couldn’t afford to go and defend against.
In some shocking cases, there were even cases of outright fraud, like the banks or other credit providers forging signatures.
This is why back in 2013, the Constitutional Court stepped in, ruling that garnishee orders should not be routinely issued by court clerks, which was a big win for debtors. The ruling required that Magistrates have a look at any such orders and do some math and set minimum requirements before allowing more and more deductions from people’s salaries.
However, this landmark ruling didn’t apply to orders issued before that year, leaving many people stuck with old, unlawful orders.
Fast forward to today, and we now have a company called GORR that’s fighting to change that. They’ve been hiring attorneys to overturn old, illegal garnishee orders, and much to some credit providers distaste they’ve been winning quite a few cases.